The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-02-09
Webster's Spelling-BOO

In the New York Erening Post Paul
most famous school books in the En-
glish language. We copy as follows
" One of the books much in vogue in
the colonies was Thomas Dilworth's
{ New Guide to the English Tongue
and when first published, about 1740,
it was probably great improvement
on its predecessors, for it had great
run in both countries. To-day, in CLAN
cling through it, it seems nearly worth
less; and this opinion of it began to take
shape towards the end of the revolu-
ton, when Joel Barlow probably only
expressed public sentiment in com
planning that lads once logged into it
when young are afraid of all kinds of
grammar all their days after AT this
time Noah Webster, fresh from Yale
College, was presented with an IS bill
of continental currency (worth about
half that sum in specie) by his father,
and told that he must strike out for
himself. To a Connecticut college-bred
lad this was equivalent to saying,
Teach a school, and teach he did, first
in Hartford and then in Goshen, n Y. d,
and from practical experience became
convinced of the worthlessness of Dill
worth. To a native-bred Yankee an
error is something to be corrected, and
poor piece of work something that
needs improving. Webster set himself
to the task of reforming the New
Guide and after two years of hard
study completed his revision, when he
travelled through the states, endeavor-
ing to obtain copyright laws in order to
protect his work. Returning to Hart
ford with partial success, he next
sought publisher, but of course with
out success, so, with the aid of a loan
from Joel Barlow, he was driven to
take the necessity of taking the whole
risk upon his own shoulders, and Hud-
son Il Goodwin, printers in Hartford,
printed in 1884 5000 copies, taking
from the author bond to make good
any deficiencies there might be. Web
ster had originally intended to call his
book The American Instructor, but
by the advice of Dr. Ezra Stiles, presi.
dent of Yale College, the title was
changed to A Grammatical Institute OF
the English Language and nothing
strongly as the fact that for twenty
years it bore that title, and yet lived
though at the end of that period the
name became The American Spelling
book and still later, in a revised form
: The Elementary Spelling-book.' The
book proved great success: edition
after edition was called for, and sup
planted nearly every book of its kline
published in this country. One O
! Webster's schemes was that this coun
| try was to have a separate language
from England; we had thrown off tn,
| shackles of her government, why no
her language also? His idea was It
reform the language, simplify the spell
ing, and so obtain a different tongue
and simpler system. Yet he took tn
very worst method in his speler TO
accomplishing his object; for, instea'
of allowing the divergences which hal
already taken place to continue, h
sharply told the American children
that they must say asparagus, not spar
rOUgraSS; bayonet, not bdgonet; court
esy, not cWche; rheumatism, not rhe,'
matte, resin, not rOzum; wainscot, no
lcinchcoH; dandruff, not dander; bel
lows, not beltOtcSiz; and many othe
equally amusing errors. In the late
editions these corrections disappear
the danger probably being over; bu
we owe him an immense debt of graft
tude, even if he had done nothing else
for having saved us from such barbal
isms. 1t was the custom then for AZ
thors to sell to the printers the right t
print editions for certain number c
years, and accordingly Webster sold hi
privilege to printers in Boston, Har
ford, Albany, New York and Philade
phia, for transportation was then s
difficult that none of these printer
could interfere with each others sales
The copyright was soon of great value
in 1885 the book was selling at the rat
of 500 a week, and in 1890 the sales in
single state were 10000 copies. FC
years the author lived on the proceed
from the speller, while many publish
ers were coming money out of it. |
1917, when the work was revised, on
printer gave him $4,000 year for h
term of copyright, and another $4,000
for the privilege of printing edition
for fourteen years. BY 1878, 100000
copies had been sold, and by 1S47, 25
600, 900, or an average rate of near
100000 copies year, and from tn
time on it is safe TO estimate the salt
at a million COPIES annually, Fac